Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16e, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and Long Term Evolution (LTE), are susceptible to co-channel interference when operating at or near maximum capacity with a finite amount of radio frequency (RF) channels available in the usable spectrum. Because of the limited number of available radio frequencies in the spectrum, it is advantageous to use frequencies efficiently. The efficiency of frequency usage in an OFDMA network is called spectral efficiency.
Co-channel interference occurs when OFDMA base stations in close proximity to one another operate on the same channel frequency due to limited available radio frequency channels in the spectrum. This interference is typically more pronounced at the cell edges and may be experienced in the uplink or the downlink.
Some proposed OFDMA systems implement an approach for mitigating co-channel interference at the cell boundary referred to as fractional frequency reuse (FFR). However, one problem common to the fractional frequency reuse schemes proposed so far is finding ways to effectively determine how mobile stations should be assigned to the segmented zones. For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for selectively assigning mobile stations to segmented zones.